New Zealand’s regions shine as STEM grants awarded

Students at three New Zealand schools will be able to
use the latest edu-tech gear after they were announced the
recipients of the School-gen Energising Young Minds
tech grants.

Tangimoana School, Aka Aka School, and
Waikino School made it to the final five of the Genesis’
Energising Young Minds competition, thanks to the
support of local people who voted in huge numbers for the
school. They then had to impress a panel of judges to make
it to the top three and win a share of the $50,000 prize
pool.

Tangimoana School Principal, Timu Niwa, says he is
overwhelmed and this is huge for a little community like
Tangimoana.

“Receiving this grant will be such a huge
morale boost, not just for the school but also for the
village which has had various floods over the last 10
years,” said Niwa.

Genesis CEO, Marc England, says New
Zealand’s progress will be influenced by enabling children
to learn STEM skills from an early age and getting them
excited about these topics.

“School-gen supports the
STEM-based learning that will be central to how industries
adapt and flourish. These three schools are fostering this
critical and creative thinking early and these grants are
aimed at assisting that,” said England.

Aka Aka School
Principal, Michaelene Nu’u, says this funding will have a
huge impact on what can be offered at the school.

“A
grant like this will have such a positive impact on our
children and how they feel about themselves and their pride
in the school,” said Nu’u.

Joanna Wheway, Waikino
School Principal, says receiving this grant is a real
tribute to the investment the community has made in their
small school.

“From a teaching perspective, it is an
opportunity to get some funding that is purely tagged to
learning,” said Wheway.

School-gen has made a range of
learning resources available to schools up and down the
country for the past eleven years and has brought solar
energy, energy efficiency and related topics to life for
students.

The competition ran from 12 February to 2 April.
685 primary, intermediate and secondary schools throughout
New Zealand were nominated with 250,997 votes from their
local community to win the edu-tech prize packs.

Seven
judges were involved in the process of narrowing the five
finalists down to three winners. The panel of judges were
Vanessa Sorenson, Enterprise Director of Microsoft New
Zealand, James Muir, Business Innovation Advisor for
Callaghan Innovation, Fee Webby GM The Mind Lab by Unitech,
Kerry Topp, Associate Director Transformation and Innovation
at Datacom, Michelle Leadsom, Executive General Manager –
Student Journey at Manukau Institute of Technology and Lou
Reddy, Marketing and Enterprise Manager Te Whangai Trust
(ex-Teacher).

• 1st prize goes to Tangimoana
School, an “Edu-tech” grant to the value of
$25,000

• 2nd prize goes to Aka Aka School,
an “Edu-tech” grant to the value of $15,000

•
3rd prize goes to Waikino School, an “Edu-tech” grant to
the value of $10,000

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